Business entities are continuously seeking to identify promising new business opportunities. Such business opportunities may arise within the context of existing client relationships, or may arise with prospective new clients.
Often, information that can lead to the discovery of new promising business opportunities (e.g. news reports, personal contacts, existing client needs) may be present in different locations, and possessed by different individuals. This lack of a centralized knowledge base can interfere with coordinated efforts in developing leads, delaying or even precluding an entity from effectively capitalizing upon a promising business opportunity.
Furthermore, identified business opportunities may not be optimally executed since the business relationships and knowledge of the individuals is not easily shared. This can lead to missed opportunities since the right people were not part of the sales team and business relationships were not optimally utilized.
These issues becomes more acute in larger business entities. In such environments, institutional knowledge relevant to a promising business opportunity may be distributed across a variety of individuals, who may be dispersed over a wide geographic area and operate within different business units.